


home is where the wine is

by vikingtealight



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 23:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18214973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vikingtealight/pseuds/vikingtealight
Summary: Based on the season 3 trailer! The cheesiest interpretation of Hop’s “It’s important to me that you feel safe. I want you to feel like this can still be your home” voiceover that I could think of.





	home is where the wine is

Hopper watched Joyce sip her wine out of the corner of his eye. This had become a new tradition, the two of them drinking--like actual responsible adults instead of getting shitfaced like they did in high school--while El and Will played in his room. This was what Hopper looks forward to when Calhaun messes up, or there’s no coffee left in the coffee pot, or when it’s just a regular crappy Monday morning, Hopper tells himself “get through this and soon you’ll be drinking and laughing with Joyce.” 

But these days may soon come to an end. Boxes were scattered, half packed and labeled with questionable accuracy, throughout the Byers’ house. Joyce had been toying with the idea of selling the house, and it seemed she was really going through with it. 

“So it’s really happening, eh?” Hopper said, taking a larger sip of his wine than he meant to.

“Oh, the moving,” said Joyce, as if it was no big deal. “I just think it’s best… Will could use a fresh start and the kids at school are, you know, so mean to him.”

“But you’re taking him away from all his friends.”

“He’ll make new friends,” said Joyce, firmly.

“Ones who will understand him?” Hopper argued. 

Joyce gave him a glare. “There’s no reason he can’t fit in with everyone else.”

“You’re right,” said Hopper. “But he already has some pretty great friends here. If I’m being honest Joyce, it doesn’t seem like this move is for him.”

“Of course it’s for Will,” said Joyce, obviously a little angry. “Who else would it before?”

“You.”

“Me?” Joyce asked indignantly. 

“Yeah, you’re running because you’re scared.”

“So what if I am?” said Joyce, voice shaking. “What if I don’t like living in the house where my son was taken by an interdimensional monster?”--tears began to fall down her cheeks--“What if I don’t like looking at the place we tied my son up because he had been possessed by another interdimensional monster? What if I don’t like looking at the places where Bob used to sit before he died?”

Hopper pulled her into his arms until her crying stopped. 

“You want me to stay though?” Joyce asked, voice muffled as she was leaning into Hopper’s shoulder.

“I think there are a lot of good reasons to stay,” said Hopper, his voice soft. 

“That’s not what I asked,” Joyce said. 

She sat up and Hopper let his arms fall away. Joyce took a sip of her wine and looked out at the window instead of at Hopper who, for reasons he didn’t quite understand, wanted desperately for her to look at him. 

“It is important to me that you feel safe,” said Hopper, his voice much firmer now, almost too aggressive for what he was saying. “I want you to feel like this can still be your home.”

“I just don’t know Hop. After everything that’s happened… I just don’t know if it ever can.”

Hopper scratched his beard. He looked away from Joyce, and then struggling to keep his voice steady said, “Then, you should go.” 

Joyce nodded. “I mean logically… it just makes sense. I don’t know, Hop, why are you so against us leaving?”

“I’m selfish,” said Hop, not really meaning to. Maybe he had had more wine than he thought. 

“You were never selfish, Hop,” Joyce said almost laughing. “You think you’re so goddamn undeserving of happiness, of companionship, of love that asking for any little bit of that is selfish. So, instead you push people away, not because that’s what you want or what you think they want, but because it’s what you think you deserve.”

Hopper clenched his jaw. Joyce had a way of cutting through all his bullshit. It was like she could see straight through the walls he built around himself. The ones that seemed to do a fine job of keeping everyone else out, but not Joyce, never her. 

“Yes, I am selfish,” said Hopper. “Because I want you to stay.”

Joyce looked at him with a sad smile on her face. She placed her hand over his. 

That gave Hop the courage to say what he really wanted to say. 

“I want you to stay and fight with me to keep this town safe for our kids. And when that’s done, I want to sit out on this porch with you and watch the damn fireflies in the summer. I want to make you blueberry pancakes every Saturday morning until I get too frustrated that I keep burning them and Jonathan takes over. I want to watch our kids go off to college and get married and when they have grandkids I want them to bring them back here to us. I want you to stay because I’ve seen my life without you in it and it was not good. It took a space alien monster thing to bring us back together once, so I don’t want to see what it would take to make that happen again. I don’t want to let you go, Joyce. Because I’m selfish and because you are my home.”

Hopper struggled to remember a moment he had ever felt this vulnerable. 

“Hop, you know that those monsters weren’t from outer space right?”

“Interdimensional monsters! Whatever!” Hopper rolled his eyes, and then said, “Joyce, please stay.”

“Hop, I’ve loved you since we were sixteen,” said Joyce. “I’ve always loved you. I will always love you.”

Hopper kissed her. And it was the best thing he ever felt and it was definitely not enough to stop there, but he had to remember their kids were just down the hall. He broke away and pressed his forehead to Joyce’s. 

After a few moments, he asked, “You’ll stay?”

“I want to… but the house is already sold…”

“Move into mine then. Let’s stop wasting time. Joyce, I love you.”

Joyce pressed her mouth back against Hopper’s. 

“Is that a yes?” Hopper asked, smiling as Joyce continued to try to kiss him. 

“Yes.”


End file.
